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There’s not much more to be said about the No. 1 prospect in the country Leonard Fournette on the field, so Saturday was as much about the yards he totaled as the character of St. Augustine’s superstar tailback.

“He asked me if I could wear it for him and his mother, so I did,” Fournette said. “It was very important for me and to him. He’s my classmate and teammate that I’ll be graduating with and it made me happy to step up to the plate and make a big play.”

Trailing 14-13, Fournette and St. Augustine took the field with just 1:43 left in the half. Fournette ran for 15 yards on the first play and then hauled in a 21-yard reception from Toi Jackson.

After an 11-yard run from Jackson and a couple of incompletions, the Purple Knights (7-1, 4-0) turned to Fournette again. The 6-foot-1, 225-pound back caught a screen pass at the line of scrimmage and dodged several Eagle defenders on his way to a 33-yard touchdown with just 19 seconds left on the clock.

“He’s big and fast and he’s as good as anybody in the open field,” Shaw Coach Scott Bairnsfather said of Fournette. “He’s really difficult to deal with in any situation, much less being out in space. If you do get a shot on him he’s so big he can bounce right off of you.”

Earlier in the game, Fournette made another huge play pulling the Purple Knights to a 7-7 tie after going up and making a play on a 24-yard pass from Justice McCoy down the left sideline. He finished the day with 222 total yards and brought his rushing total to 1,166 for the season.

"He's a young man of great character," St. Augustine Coach Cyril Crutchfield said of Fournette's decision to change numbers. "He's a humble young man so he felt like he needed to do that and that's what he did."

Fournette's counterpart Trey Ragas also had a good game despite the Eagles’ (4-5, 0-4) loss racking up 128 total yards. He took Shaw’s first 10 carries and was key to the Eagles’ success early on as the running game kept the St. Augustine offense on the sideline.

“We had some seams inside in the first half and (Ragas) got off to a good start,” Bairnsfather said. “He broke a few tackles and helped us move the chains so I think he played pretty well.”

Defense was actually the story early on as neither team got on the board in the opening period. Both teams came up with fourth-down stops to keep the opposing offense in check, but Ragas and Fournette would help get their offenses back on track in an explosive second quarter that produced 33 points.

Shaw got on the board first after converting a fourth-and-2, and then got a couple of big runs from Matt Keller that set the Eagles up at the 1-yard line. Quentin Gibson would punch it in on the next play to give Shaw a 7-0 lead on homecoming.

The Purple Knights answered on their next possession converting a fourth down conversion of their own and were also aided by a facemask that negated a Darrell Ingram sack and Fournette would pull the Purple Knights even after hauling in a 24-yard pass down the sideline from Justice McCoy.

St. Augustine's defense forced a three-and-out after Fournette’s game-tying catch and needed just three plays to get into the end zone. Stanley Morgan had a 31-yard catch and Toi Jackson, who finished 16-of-22 for 213 yards, found tight end Charles Jones in the back of the end zone for a score. The extra point was missed leaving the Purple Knights ahead 13-7 with 3:51 left until halftime.

Shaw's Trey Ragas rushed for 103 yards on 22 carries in the loss to St. Augustine. (Joshua Preston, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

Ragas then broke off a big run on the ensuing possesion for 26 yards after a 12-yard catch that got the Eagles deep into St. Augustine territory. Cameron Troxler scored on a 9-yard reception from Gibson, who finished 17-of-32 for 147 yards, that gave Shaw a 14-13 lead before Fournette’s efforts at the end of the half.

The Purple Knights set the tone coming out of halftime with a big possession covering 88 yards on 15 plays capped off by a 15-yard pass from Jackson to Morgan.

Shaw took over halfway through the quarter and put together a long drive of its own that spanned 16 plays. But the Eagles were unable to finish off the drive narrowly missing a 48-yard field goal as time expired in the third. In what turned out to be a huge play, Marcet Andry sacked Gibson on the previous play for a 5-yard loss.

The Eagle defense came up with a stop, but the offense couldn’t get going on its first possession of the fourth quarter and the Purple Knights would finish off the scoring on their next drive on a 2-yard run from Lanard Fournette.

“We played sluggish and I kind of expected that coming off an emotional victory last week,” Crutchfield said. “I knew Shaw would be ready to play, but we have the type of kids that when it’s time to make plays they step up and make plays and they definitely did that today.”

St. Augustine has a short week taking on Jesuit at Tad Gormley Stadium on Thursday at 7 p.m.

Shaw will try to avoid a winless season in the ultra-competitive Catholic League, but will have another tough test in a road matchup against Holy Cross Saturday at 2:30 p.m.